Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Day 3- Noon- Jenolan Caves

Back at the motel, we had our lunch and after some well-deserved rest, we embarked on another trip to the scenic Blue Lake. The drive was part of the Jenolan Discovery Trail. The Jenolan Caves road is very curvaceous and steep which only increased the thrill of our drive! Our desire was to spot a Platypus in the Blue Lake!

The Blue Lake is a man-made lake which was created for the generation of electricity.
At the lake, we spotted a couple of fish, but couldn’t spot a single Platypus! The loop walk around the lake is indeed a romantic and soothing one; it was one of our more pleasant walks.

Although, the place is famous for the Jenolan Caves, which rank among the oldest caves of the world, about 340 million years old; I was low on the fitness levels needed to negotiate the network of caves given the number of stairs that had to be ascended and descended over and over again. The caves are known for their stalactite and stalagmite formations. We did see some of the stalactites in the first cave which is next to the Grand Arch (a fascinating rock formation under which one drives through to reach the car park).

The Jenolan Caves area is indeed a very pristine spot! There is something mysterious and magical to the place, especially, when one realizes how ancient the caves are! As much as we were left awestruck by the little that we saw, we were soon brought back to reality with the sounds of thunder accompanied by a light drizzle. We wished to stay on but were left with little daylight time to negotiate the curvaceous Jenolan Caves Road.

-Aarina

P.S. : Just besides the Jenolan caves is the blue lake. After 5PM, when the caves close for visitors, the place becomes quite deserted and makes for a lovely evening romantic walk. The water of the lake is blue because light is refracted by the dissolved particles of limestone in the water.